'What are you going to do for working people?': Wisconsin AFL-CIO president speaks on importance of labor for midterms

It's been more than two years since Milwaukee hosted Laborfest and with President Joe Biden planning to attend, it marks the first time since 2014 that a sitting president is scheduled to attend the event.

The annual festival hadn't been held since 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and logistical issues in 2021.The event is planned for Monday, starting with a march at 11 a.m. from  Zeidler Union Square on North 4th and West Michigan streets and ending at Henry Maier Festival Park (aka the Summerfest grounds). The event is open to the public and will feature music, food and drinks, adult bingo, wrestling and a classic car show.

Labor leaders are excited to gather again, especially two months before midterm elections.

The Wisconsin races for governor and U.S. Senate have put the state in the national spotlight.

In those races, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO has endorsed incumbent Democrat Tony Evers for governor over Republican challenger Tim Michels, and Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes for Senate over incumbent Republican Ron Johnson.

In addition to Biden, Evers and Barnes are planning to attend Laborfest on Monday along with Liz Shuler, the national president of the AFL-CIO.

Although the AFL-CIO has mostly endorsed Democratic candidates, Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale said the organization is nonpartisan.

"We are open to making endorsements on either side of the aisle. And in fact, historically, we have," Bloomingdale said. "But what has happened in the state is it has become more and more polarized."

Bloomingdale said the organization is focused on how candidates can help workers if elected.

In interviews with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bloomingdale and Shuler talked about what role labor and labor policy will have on the 2022 midterms.

Question: What are some of the issues that are on the ballot this fall that pertain to workers and labor policy? 

Bloomingdale: Thinking about some of the top issues in this state is who is the candidate that is going to make our infrastructure is going to be built up? We know that we have the bipartisan Infrastructure Act that was passed allowing so many people to get to work with good paying jobs to rebuild our infrastructure.

Gov. Evers talks about this a lot, and we agree with him, we wanted him to fix the damn roads and he has fixed the roads.

Another issue that I think is really important, is our water safe in Wisconsin? We know that there are lots of threats to that. Gov. Evers has worked very, very hard to put good union skilled workers to the job in Milwaukee and other places where those lead laterals exist. This is away to not only help our kids by making sure our water is safe but it’s also building not just jobs, but careers for people.

Shuler: Whether we have an economy that works for all or one that benefits just the privileged few is among the most critical issues on voters’ minds this fall. We’ve made significant progress for working people in the last two years. The Infrastructure bill, the CHIPS Act, Inflation Reduction Act, student debt relief and more workers exercising their freedom to join a union have put our nation on a path to a more fair and just economy for workers and their families.

But that progress could disappear an instant if the CEOs, politicians and candidates they bankroll take control of Congress. This is the fundamental question facing Wisconsin voters this election. Do we want to continue progress for working people or hand of the reins to politicians we know will increase inequality, reduce wages, erode basic freedoms and make our lives more difficult.

Voters want a workers’ agenda and they’re ready to fight for it.

How do you hold people like Gov. Evers to account on some of these issues on workers?  

Bloomingdale: Our work doesn’t stop on Election Day. Our work continues to hold these politicians accountable to the working people that elected them, and that’s not an easy task. We need to make sure that we are on top of the issues day-to-day, minute by minute. This legislature, the way that it is, you just don’t know what’s going to pop-up.

What are today’s issues that workers should care about? 

Bloomingdale: People, I believe, have been lulled into a false sense of complacency. And people think we don’t need to worry about safety for kids on the job, we don’t need to worry about the eight hour work day, we don’t need to worry about making sure people have time off to care for their families. But indeed we do because our struggle doesn’t ever end.

We need to continue to fight for working people and if we stop fighting, we go backwards. You say “wages are going up,” they’re still not going up to the point where people can feel that security that they need to have a good middle class life and we know that it’s the unions that built this middle class.

Without strong unions we cannot have a healthy, striving middle class.

We are still fighting about issues about safety on the job, look at what we just went through with the pandemic.

We were out there each and every day making sure we were fighting for safety on the job because our system was woefully unprepared to meet the needs of working people to get us through this pandemic and we should never make this mistake again.

There’s always good things that come out of bad things. We had a terrible pandemic but I think we reignited the understanding for people that we need to take workplace protection and safety seriously.

There’s basic overtime protections that are always being threatened in one way or another.

There’s also the issue of licensing. And this Republican legislature is hell bent on rolling back our licenses in this state. Every year they’re putting forward legislation that’s going to reduce the quality of the product that people expect and also the skills that are required to do those jobs.

We’re seeing a lot of threats on licensure, this is part of a nationwide trend. We know that every year these things come up.

Shuler: The governor’s race and the Senate race here in Wisconsin are among the most watched in the nation and there’s a good reason for that. The contrast between the candidates on workers issues couldn’t be more clear. Tony Evers and Mandela Barnes fight for workers. They champion the issues that matter to working people. Control of the US Senate could come down to Wisconsin. Sen. Johnson has consistently stood with the wealthy and privileged and against working Wisconsinites. He voted against lowering prescription drug costs for seniors. He even says he wants to eliminate Social Security and Medicare as we know it and leave our benefits in the hands of politicians like himself. That’s the absolute wrong direction for working people.

But what gives me hope is the dedication and commitment of the labor movement in Wisconsin to a brighter future. This labor movement is battle tested and we know how hard union members in Wisconsin will fight to ensure that all Wisconsin workers have a fair shot at the American Dream. This is among the most engaged labor movements in the country and the work union members do over the next two months could determine the fate of our country.

We've seen unions form at Colectivo, a Starbucks in Oak Creek, Raven Software in Middleton, UW Health nurses in Madison and the Pabst Theater Group in Milwaukee. There seems to be something going on with labor at this moment, why do you think that is? 

Bloomingdale: This is definitely the moment for workers to increase our power. We know that this opportunity needs to be taken seriously at this very moment. People are fed up at work. They’re fed up with working really hard and not being able to get ahead. They’re fed up with having to work two jobs. Fed up with healthcare that costs too much.

People are fed up and I think the pandemic helped focus people on what they want for their future. It allowed people to reimagine what it means to have real success in life. And one of the things that’s holding us back is this unfettered ability for corporations to do union busting. They’re allowed to break the law or come right up to the edge of breaking the law. And in America we should have the freedom to join a union if we want to join a union, and that’s not happening right now because our labor laws are so broken.

So that’s why we support the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, that will make the playing field more fair for workers to stop what a lot of these workers has gone through.

When you talk about Raven Software, they went through one-on-one intimidation. When you’re talking about Starbucks, the union busters come in, these are high priced, shady outfits that basically come in and have an agenda to dissuade people, in sometimes very ugly ways, from organizing their union.

If we really want to have a solid middle class and we want to have prosperity, then we need to have worker to have the freedom to join a union.

This moment is significant and it’s a game changer for working people.

What’s going on with CNH Industrial, where workers couldn’t come to an agreement with their employers so they went on strike and the employers brought in replacement workers, that seems to be a bloody fight. Do you see that as an example of employers striking back against workers who are making demands? 

This fight is an age-old fight. Workers having the courage to take that step is very difficult, very significant and all that we have has not been given to us, it’s been because we have fought for those gains that have been made. We look behind us to those people that have made those gains for us and have sacrificed, and these people who are out on that strike line are doing that today.

And it is not easy for them to do this. It is not easy to say “We’re going to be here one day longer, one day stronger,” but they are. And that is what the workers at CNH are doing and we’ve seen more strike action in these last couple of years than we’ve seen in a very long time.

How important is Wisconsin in the future of the labor movement? 

Shuler: Wisconsin has a storied tradition of worker activism and unionism. Whenever we think about the future of the labor movement, Wisconsin is central to that. Union members here persevered through years of attacks by (former Governor) Scott Walker and other anti-worker politicians. They set out to destroy Wisconsin’s labor movement. But it didn’t work.

Union workers are more engaged and active than ever in building their communities and restoring America’s promise for all. And, based on what I’ve seen, they’re fired up and ready to go this election season to make a real difference.

What does it mean for President Biden to be coming here on Monday? 

Bloomingdale: This is very, very significant. We’re so excited to be welcoming President Biden. He’s the most pro-union president in the history of this country. He understands the importance of unions not just because it’s a good thing, but as a matter of economic policy. He understands that in order to build this country and what we need, we need to make sure we have strong unions.

Shuler: President Biden’s visit here on Labor Day shows just how much he values and respects Wisconisin’s workers and the state’s proud labor tradition. The president has been fighting for us. It’s great to have him come here to speak with workers directly about what he’s done and what he will do in the future for workers and their families.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin AFL-CIO president speaks on importance of labor for midterms